Didn't sting. Didn't burn. And my silk wrap job held up for the whole rehearsal. Maybe I can work in a nail salon if my music career ever pans out. :-) Crisis #1 over. Next challenge: clear my mind of personal crap and focus on the rehearsal. Usually I'm good at getting mentally focusing when I need to (no magic formula, just lots and lots of practice), but it wasn't happening. I didn't ask, but I had a feeling that Marsha was having the same problem too. Oh well. It happens to all of us, but thank God this was just a rehearsal and not a performance. So you just keep going and give it your best no matter what--that's being professional. No whining allowed! :-)

Hallway to the flamenco studio. March 29, 2006 10:04am

We finished the rehearsal the best we could, and tentatively scheduled another one for this weekend to make up for lost productivity.

Took the usual half-hour between rehearsal and dance class to get some nourishment and fresh air. Got back at 12:30pm refreshed and ready for my lesson.

The first class is a ballroom sampler and we've covered the basics of almost all the more popular dance forms but today we focused on waltz. The rhythm is fairly simple but when I have to think about proper posture, keeping my head up and shoulders down, maintaining ballroom frame, keep the footwork pattern correct and make it look and feel natural etc I lose track of the music, really!

Yeah I have a decent sense of rhythm (duh, otherwise I'd never have gotten this far as a flamenco guitarist). But it takes a lot of mental and physical energy just to do the basics. I've always known this since I spend so much time with dancers anyway, but it's cool for me to have experienced the feeling myself. Does this meean I'm going to sympathize with dancers (professional and amateur) when they complain how hard it is to be a dancer. Of course not! Being a musician is just as hard in its own way, but I won't get into that right now.

Oh yeah, I've been lurking in message boards about ballroom dance a lot lately. One of things that comes up from time to time is how studio XYZ is better than studio ABC cuz they teach partnering technique as opposed to just steps.

This is the equivalent of flamenco teachers teaching choreography without giving an equal dose of theory. For example, there are teachers who crank out students who know tons of cool choreographies but are clueless when it comes to working with live music. Yeah, flamenco is like partnering in ballroom and latin dances like salsa (remember my blog entry from Sunday?).

Anyway, I still got a long way to go, but I just to want to emphasize that my instructor Marsha Bonet (she's awesome!) is teaching me partnering technique. It's a good thing to pick up early on cuz when you go out to clubs and social events us guys will be dancing with ladies that we've never danced with before and if we can't lead our partners properly it's not that enjoyable for the lady (not to mention the poor clueless guy who's wondering why the lady isn't doing "her" part).

The same deal goes for flamenco dance students. Ask your teacher about cante and baile structure and how to communicate non-verbally to the guitarist, singer and palmeros. (Pssst! Don't tell anyone, but this book has many of the professional secrets you'll need to know.) When you go out there to flamenco parties or whatever, you'll know how to "lead" your guitarist.

Tell you what...this Friday at my house there'll be a flamenco party. I'll be there around 11:00pm (party starts at 9:30pm) since I'm getting off a gig in Georgetown. But if you want to try out your dances, I'm all yours!

Yikes! It's 9:58am and I my early lunch date's at 11:00am. Gotta go!